That which survives, The Next Generation
by Supermarshal
Summary: I thought it might be interesting to take a script from the original series and put the next generation crew in the story, tell me what you think.
1. Chapter 1

**I thought it might be interesting to take a script from the original series and put the next generation crew in the story, tell me what you think.**

_Captains log Stardate__ 45814.3. The Enterprise is en route to __s__ector 19658 in order to investigate an unusual reading from the Argus array._

"Report Mr Data" Picard ordered while staring at the view screen at the object they had been sent to investigate.

"It appears to be a Planet, Captain, but there is no record of it in any federation star charts"

"A large part of this sector is still unexplored" Commander Riker added "That would explain why no one knew about it"

"Well we may as well take a look No1. What do your sensors tell you Mr Data?"

Picard watched as the mysterious planet grew on the view screen. At first it didn't strike him as anything remarkable, however years of experience had taught him never to judge a book by its cover.

"The readings are unusual, Captain. My scans show that it is less than seven thousand years old, yet it appears to be an M-class planet"

"M-class?" said Riker, confused "It takes millions of years for a planet to evolve into an M-class."

"There's more sir" Data interrupted "its diameter is only 3,219 kilometres, smaller than the Earths moon, and yet its gravity, mass and atmosphere are comparable to Earth"

"Curiouser and curiouser" Picard said whilst lightly tugging on his tunic "I think an away mission is called for No1, don't you agree?"

"Yes sir, I'll assemble a team"

"Take Lieutenant D'Amato with you, he majored in geology at the academy, his knowledge should come in useful."

"Yes sir. Lieutenant Worf, Ensign Ro, You're with me" Riker then tapped his com badge "Lieutenant D'Amato, report to transporter room 3 for away mission."

OoOoOoO

As Riker entered the transporter room he saw that D'Amato was obviously excited.

"Mr D'Amato, you've been provided with sensor readings on the planet?"

"Yes sir" The young man could hardly contain his enthusiasm "It should make quite a paper for the galactic geographical survey."

"I've no doubt that it will be a very fascinating paper. Prepare for transport."

Riker Positioned himself at the front of the platform as the rest of his away team assumed their places, after a quick glance round he gave the order to energise. Within seconds he felt the familiar tingling sensation as his body began to dematerialise and the room about him began to gently fade away. Everything went as expected, until he saw her. A woman suddenly appeared in front of the platform, he didn't get more than a second to glance at her but she was obviously a very beautiful woman. She seemed to be shouting something and Riker strained to hear her over the humming of the transporter matrix

"NO, YOU MUST NOT GO"

And then he was on the planet.

"COMMANDER"

He turned round quickly at the sound of Worfs voice

"Did you see her?"

For an instance he was relieved that he hadn't imaged her, the look on Ro and D'Amato's faces told him that they had also seen.

"Riker to Enterprise."He called into his com badge, but he got no further as the ground suddenly shook beneath his feet.


	2. Chapter 2

Data Found himself on the floor staring at the ceiling of the bridge, his internal chronometer showed that he had been there for 4.276 seconds since the violent shudder had knocked him out of his seat. He ran a self diagnostic and found no errors. He sat up and looked around, everyone else on the bridge had been similarly knocked to the floor. He then noticed Captain Picard, he appeared to be injured.

"Captain, are you alright?" He called as he pulled himself up to his feet.

"I'm fine Mr Data, I must have hit my head."

Data resumed his place at ops and began to assess the situation.

"External sensors are offline."

He got no reply from Captain Picard, as he looked round he could see the Captain holding his head in pain.

Data tapped the com control on his panel.

"All decks, make damage report to ops. Sick bay make casualty report and send a medic to the bridge. Data to engineering, Geordi, what is your status?"

_"We're running diagnostics, so far everything apart from external __sensors __appears to be functioning. We'll get the sensors online as soon as possible. __La Forge out__"_

Data Eventually Heard the Captain speak.

"Mr Data, I think it would be prudent to go to yellow until we figure out what has happened, and raise the shields."

"Yes sir."

"Shields up sir." Ensign Walton called from the security station.

"Captain." Lieutenant Rhada called from the helm, "I've managed to get the view screen operating. There is no sign of the planet"

"What? Mr Data, we need those sensors now to find out what has happened to the planet."

"Yes sir. But I believe we have more of a problem than a missing planet, the star field appears to be completely different. I would surmise that the planet is still where it was and that we have moved"

OoOoOoO

Riker's body ached as he struggle to stand.

"Is everybody alright?" He asked

"I been better." Ro replied.

"Mr D'Amato that was a hell of an earthquake, what can you tell me?"

"I've never seen anything like it sir, all readings are off the scale, but whatever it was it wasn't seismic in nature, it was magnetic."

"Commander." Ro called, "The Enterprise, it's gone."

"What?" Riker took Ro's tricorder from her. There was no doubt, the ship was not in orbit, there was no sign of it. They were stranded.


	3. Chapter 3

He double checked the tricorder, but there could be no doubt. The Enterprise was not in orbit.

"That doesn't make any sense." He said returning the tricorder to Ro, "A starship doesn't just vanish."

"I've checked and double checked," Ro replied, "There is nothing to suggest it exploded nor is there anything to suggest it crashed into the planet."

"Could the magnetic reading Mr D'Amato detected have damaged the tricorders?" Worf added.

"I doubt it, I can still read the residual ionisation trail left by the ships impulse engines. "

Riker looked round the world that had suddenly become their home, it was a barren rocky wasteland. It was almost completely flat for kilometres with the odd hillock here and there, and it was sparsely covered in grass. The wind blew cold and he looked up at the sky, it was grey, but it had a slight hint of blue. He didn't cherish the idea of being marooned here for too long, but that was something that he had no control over, the Enterprise had gone and there was no way to know what had happened to it, but at that moment it was academic. Without any communication to Starfleet it would be 21 days before the Enterprise was classed as missing, how long after that before anyone found them was something he couldn't even guess, the first concern was survival. He turned to face the away team.

"At this present moment in time whatever happened to the ship is of no concern, we need to be prepared for the possibility of an extended stay on this planet, that means we are going to need food, we are going to need water and we are going to need shelter, and we are going to need them now. We'll split up and explore the immediate area, stay in communication range and I want updates every twenty minutes. Carry on."

OoOoOoO

_"La Forge to bridge, external sensors are back online."_

"Thank you Commander," Picard replied as the medic finished off treating him, "Mr Data, I need a full analysis."

"Scanning now."

_"Sick bay to bridge, we have no serious injuries to report but we have one fatality. Ensign Whiley was found dead in transporter room 3."_

"Cause of death?"

_"I'm not certain __there are no obvious signs of trauma, but every cell in his body had been completely __disrupted, as though they have somehow been blasted from the inside__."_

"Could it have been caused by some form of disease?"

_"No known disease could have caused this, it's as though a huge surge of power has gone straight through the nucleus of each individual cell. __There's__ nothing on record that could have caused that. I'm about to perform a full autopsy, I should know more after that."_

"Keep me advised Dr Crusher, Picard out."

"Captain." Data called from ops, "According to my navigational scans we have had a positional change. We are currently 990.7 light years from our original position."

It took a second for the information to sink in. Picard stood up and walked over to the ops station.

"990.7 light years? How is that possible?"

"Unknown sir. Without any further information I am at a loss to explain it."

"Even if the planet exploded it wouldn't have pushed us away, certainly not this far, we would have been destroyed."

"Our sensor logs show no sign of an explosion. There was however a magnetic surge of enormous magnitude that emanated from the planet immediately after the away team transported down."

"A magnetic surge? Was it a natural phenomenon?"

"I cannot be certain sir. I can say that the planet was still intact prior to our departure and so it is possible that the away team are still alive."

"Picard to engineering."

_"La Forge here."_

"Do we have warp drive? I'll need to take us to warp nine"

_"Yes sir, warp engines are fully operational, we can give you warp nine, and more if you need it."_

"Very well. Lieutenant Rhada, set course to return us to the planet, warp nine, engage."

On the view screen Picard saw the star pattern begin to swirl as the warp field surrounded the ship, it was a sight that he always considered to be quite beautiful, but there were too many things on his mind right now. Not since they encountered the Aldean repulser beam on stardate 41509.1 has Picard known of anything that could push the Enterprise so far away, except for Q, but this didn't seem to be Q's doing. Someone else wanted them away from that Planet, but who, and why.

"Mr Data, are there any weapons that could have cause Ensign Whiley's death?"

"None that I am aware of sir."

"A transporter malfunction maybe."

"I don't believe any transporter malfunction could have had that effect."

"Let's be certain, have the transporters taken offline and checked."


	4. Chapter 4

"So what you're saying, Mr Worf, is that there is absolutely no edible vegetation whatsoever."

"Yes sir, the plant life has no nutritional content."

Frustrated and a little confused Riker looked round at the grass growing in clumps over the ground, by rights they shouldn't even be there.

"I don't see any sign of water, but it must be present in order for these plants to grow. Mr D'Amato, have you seen any evidence of rainfall?"

"No Sir," D'Amato replied "in fact there's nothing to show that there ever been any rain on this planet."

"And yet there is plant life here."

"Could it possible they absorb moisture from the air?" Ro interrupted "Or perhaps there's a subterranean supply. If we could find that it would give us a better chance of survival."

"Tell me about this organism you've detected."

"Well it's almost like a virus, possibly some kind of plant parasite, my readings aren't too accurate but it's the only biological life I can find."

"Well we're going to need to know more if we want to stay alive. D'Amato, see if you find underground water. Worf, run an atmospheric analysis. Ro, see what else you can find out about the vegetation and this parasite. I want to know how they get their water, if you can discover how they survive then hopefully we can too."

OoOoOoO

Worf, had spent almost an hour on the analysis, the warrior in him found scientific surveys to be tedious, but he knew his duty. Everything on his tricorder looked normal when all of a sudden a new reading appeared, one that Worf could barely believe. He tapped his combadge.

"Worf to Commander Riker."

"_Go ahead, Worf._"

"Sir, I was making a standard magnetic sweep, from zero I suddenly got a reading that went off the scale, then a reverse of polarity, now I get nothing. It's like a door opened and then closed again. I've never seen anything like it "

"_Understood, lieutenant, keep me advised. Riker out._"

OoOoOoO

D'Amato was beginning to find his survey equally tedious, he could find nothing but the same extrusive igneous rock with relatively few crystals, he could see no sign of water erosion and very little wind erosion, even the soil, which was little more than dust, was unremarkable. There was no indication of underground water. He turned round to begin a survey on a small outcrop that he had seen earlier in the hope that he would find something more interesting when he found himself staring into the face of a quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"Do not be afraid." Her voice was quite lovely.

"I'm not afraid, you startled me. Who are you?"

"That's not important. You are Lieutenant D'Amato, you are a geologist, you come from the planet Earth"

"That's right. How do you know about me?"

"You came here aboard the spaceship Enterprise."

"Yes, we're explorers, we came here to learn about your planet and we're stranded here."

"Do not be afraid."

"I'm not."

The woman suddenly started walking towards him, her hand outstretched, D'Amato backed away.

"I am for you, Lieutenant D'Amato."

"Well aren't I the lucky one."

"I am only for D'Amato."

"Wait, you're the woman on the Enterprise, in the transporter room." He reached for his combadge.

"No, do not call the others."

"I need to call Commander Riker, we'd like to discuss the possibility of sharing your food and water."

"Please."

OoOoOoO

"_Ro to Commander Riker_."

"Go ahead, ensign."

"_I suddenly got a life-form reading of tremendous intensity, it just appeared out of nowhere._"

"What do you mean?"

"_Just that, Sir. All levels were normal and then I got this biological surge of life-form registering."_

"Hold your position, I'll be right there." Will started to jog to Ro's position when she called back.

"_Wait, it's gone."_

"As though a door opened and closed?"

"_Yes."_

"What direction?"

"_083."_

That was where D'Amato was surveying.

"Stand by, ensign. Riker to D'Amato."

He waited a second but there was no reply.

"Riker to Lieutenant D'Amato, respond."

But there was still no reply. That could only mean one thing, trouble.

"Worf, Ro, D'Amato isn't answering, meet me at his location on the double."

Will turned on his heels and began to run towards D'Amato's position, he saw Worf join him from the left, quickly followed by Ro. He headed between to outcrops of rock, as he came round the other side he saw D'Amato lying crumpled on the ground, he turned him over checked for a pulse but there was none. D'Amato was dead. Ro knelt beside him and ran her tricorder over his body.

"I've never seen anything like this. Commander, every cell in his body has been disrupted."


	5. Chapter 5

Riker looked down at D'Amato's body trying to make sense of it, there was no sign of injury and yet something or someone had killed him and yet there was no sign of a struggle of any kind, no indication that he had been hit by a weapon. Instinctively he knew that he and the away team were in further danger but there was something he felt he had to do. He pulled out his phaser and set the power to mid range.

"Commander," He heard Worf behind him, "What are you doing?"

"I'm digging a grave."

He aimed the phaser at the ground and fired, as he did the soil burned away to reveal rock only a few centimetres beneath, he continued to fire but nothing happened. He stopped and took a closer look.

"What the hell?" He stepped closer, it wasn't even warm.

"That's the same red rock that we've seen everywhere else." Ro remarked.

"It must have an exceptionally high melting. " Worf added, "A standard phaser emits more than 8,000 degrees Celsius."

"It looks just igneous rock but it's obviously far denser." Riker added.

He took a few more steps and fired again with the same result.

"Whatever this substance is the entire planet must be made up of it, covered by a layer of topsoil." He turned to Ro, "If we knew what this stuff was we might have a better understanding of this planet, I know geology isn't exactly your field of expertise but find out what you can, and stay close."

"Yes sir." With that she glanced at D'Amato and started to scan the rocks.

"Mr Worf, would you help me to build a tomb for Mr D'Amato."

"Yes sir. I believe a tomb of rocks would be a very honourable memorial for a geologist."

"I couldn't agree more, Mr Worf. I would like to know what, or who killed him."

"We will have to be on our guard; whoever did this is obviously very cunning."

Riker looked round, he suddenly had the feeling that their every move was being watched. An hour passed and the three of them stood over the lonely monument, Riker knew that it would be worse if there any more such monuments, after what seemed an eternity he spoke to Worf and Ro.

"We're going to have to figure out a way to defend ourselves from whatever did this. Ensign Ro, you've scanned this area, this may sound crazy, but could the rocks themselves be alive?"

She looked at him as if it were a trick question.

"Well, not that I could tell. I remember at the academy we learned about the silicone based life forms on Janus VI, but they registered on instruments. I get no such readings."

"Unless," Worf interrupted, "we are dealing with beings that can shield themselves from sensors with some kind of cloaking device."

"It's a hell of a problem," Riker added, "We have no answers, but lots of questions."

OoOoOoO

_Captain's log supplemental. Mr La Forge has brought the warp engines back online and we are at warp 8.4, if we can hold this speed we should be back to our previous position in 11 and one half hours. I can only hope that we find the away team unharmed._

Geordie had been staring at the display for ten minutes, every reading was perfect, and yet in his gut he knew there was something wrong but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He had been tempted to call up to the bridge and tell Captain Picard his concerns, but he didn't know how to explain it. Every bit of instrumentation showed that the engines were working exactly as they should be but something_ felt _wrong and it irritated him, it was like an itch that he couldn't quite reach. He walked over to the warp core and looked at the crystal housing hoping it would talk to him, but the only noise it made was the regular thrumming of the warp drive. He went back to the control room, some of the engineering crew were giving him strange looks.

"Hey, Watkins, do me a favour, check the bypass valve on the matter-antimatter reaction chamber, make sure it's not overheating."

"The board shows it's correct, sir."

"Yeah I know, just humour me."

OoOoOoO

She watched as the man climbed up the ladder, he didn't see her first, he seemed more interested in the machinery in the room, he looked at one and then another, then he turned and faced her. He seemed to be startled by her appearance, but after a few seconds he found his voice.

"Who are you?"

She smiled at him.

"My name is not important, but yours is Ensign Watkins."

"How do you know that? We've never met before."

She moved to machines.

"Show me device, I'd like to learn about it."  
"It's the matter-antimatter integrator control."

She knew he was lying, but it didn't matter.

"Incorrect. This is the emergency overload bypass, it engages almost instantaneously. A prudent precaution considering it take the antimatter longer to explode should the magnetic flow fails."

He seemed confused by her knowledge, and she felt sorrow for him as he did not know why she was here.

"I am for you Mr Watkins."

She moved towards him and he touched a small brooch.

"Watkins to bridge, we have a female intruder in engineering,,,,,,,,"

As she touched him he screamed in pain, and the sound pierced her soul. He fell to the ground and she heard a voice come from the brooch.

"_Bridge to Watkins, report your status. Bridge to Watkins, come in._"

She backed away from him as she heard another voice from the bottom of the ladder.

"WATKINS, ANSWER ME WATKINS, WHAT'S GOING ON."

Another man appeared up the ladder with a strange device covering his eyes. She watched as he ran to Watkins and touched his neck, then he also touched a brooch that he was wearing.

"La Forge to sick bay, medical emergency in engineering secondary control room. We need a medic, fast."

He did not see her, so she closed her eyes and felt herself slip away, as though she had never existed.


	6. Chapter 6

It was starting to get dark and cold, but fortunately not too cold. They had taken shelter from the wind and were discussing the day's event. Ro explained her conclusions.

"Well, it seems that the planet made of some kind of diburnium-osmium alloy, there's no kind of evolutionary process that could have made it naturally. It just doesn't make sense, there's no magnetic field and yet Mr Worf detected a magnetic fluctuation. The planet is only a few thousand years old and yet there are complicated structures such as plant life that would take millions of years to develop naturally. The only thing I can come up with is that the planet is artificial."

"But where are the people who made it?" Worf asked, almost rhetorically.

Riker looked round and stroked his beard, he was obviously as confused as the rest of them. Worf wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"They might have some kind of cloaking technology. I suppose it's possible that the planet is hollow and they live in some kind of underground habitat. One thing is for sure, at the moment we're all too tired to figure it out right now so let's get some rest. As soon as it gets light we're going to have to find food and water, that will have to be our first priority."

Worf stood up, the warrior in him knew his duty.

"Commander, I'll take the first watch."

"Very well. Take D'Amato's tricorder with you, set it up for automatic distress. I'll spell you in 2 hours. Ro, you take the finale watch."

Worf set the tricorder and took up sentry position as Riker and Ro made themselves comfortable on the ground, as he set the tricorder on he heard Riker call after him.

"One more thing, Mr Worf, make sure your phaser is set to kill. Let's not take any chances."

Worf simply nodded in agreement, he decided not to mention that he had already set it to kill after D'Amato died.

OoOoOoO

Jean Luc felt restless, but he just stood and looked out of the window of the observation lounge while Ensign Walton briefed him on the search for the intruder.

"We've been through the entire ship from bow to stern, there is no sign of an intruder. We'll search again naturally, and I've posted guards at all critical points and at intervals along all corridors."

"And you say that nobody else was in the control room, Mr La Forge."

"Yes sir, apart from Watkins the room was empty. But there are two more exits so she could have got through either of them."

"Sir." Walton interrupted, "If I may I'd like to recommend we go to general quarters, if we confine off duty personnel to their quarters for the time being it will help us with the search. And if I can borrow personnel from other departments that will also help."

"Agreed, make it so."

Jean Luc's heard the door slide open and he turned to see Dr Crusher, followed by Counsellor Troi.

"Doctor, have you completed your autopsy on Ensign Watkins."

"Well the pattern cellular disruption is exactly the same Ensign Whiley, as to what caused it, I don't have enough information to be able to hazard an educated guess."

Jean Luc took the information on board but him left him non the wiser, all he knew was that his ship was in immediate danger,

"Mr Data, do you have anything to add?"

"We are obviously dealing with a technologically advanced civilisation, no weapon that we know of can disrupt the cell structure of a living organism in the manner that we have seen, nor do we have the ability to hurl a starship such as distance. This speaks of a high culture and a very grave danger."

"That means that the away team are in grave danger." Deanna remarked.

"I am aware of that, Counsellor." Jean Luc was sympathetic towards Deanna's concern for Will Riker, but he needed her to remain focused on the situation, "and we are doing all we can under the circumstances."

OoOoOoO

The night drew on as Worf continued to stand watch, all was quiet apart from the soft electronic chatter of the tricorder. After a while it started to sound musical and Worf found himself humming a klingon opera, he was almost getting carried away with it, but when the tricorder stopped he noticed straight away. He turned on his heels and saw a woman closing the tricorder, she seemed vaguely familiar. He aimed his phaser at her.

"Halt, identify yourself."

"My name is not important. You are Worf, son of Mogh, you are chief of security on the spaceship Enterprise."

"How do you know this? Who are you? Where are you from?"

"I am from this world."

"So, you are shielding yourself from us. Are you responsible for Lieutenant D'Amato's death?"

The woman remained silent but simply looked at the ground. She was incredibly beautiful, but there was sadness about her.

"Very well, if you won't answer me you will answer to Commander Riker. Turn around."

She remained still.

"You will turn around now."

"You do not understand, I am for you."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to touch you."

She moved towards him, Worf raised his phaser higher.

"Now I know you, you were aboard the Enterprise, in the transporter room."

She ignored and carried on towards him,

"Stop or I will fire."

But she carried on. Worf fired at the ground in front of her but she carried on. He fired again, this time directly at her, but it had no effect.

He touched hi combadge.

"Worf to Commander Riker, emergency."

He fired again, and again, but she carried on towards him, as she reached out for him he back away, but he didn't see the stone and he tripped on it. As he fell to the ground her hand brushed against his shoulder. The pain was excruciating, it was like nothing he had experienced before. As he yelled in pain he heard a familiar voice shout out.

"STOP."

He looked up and saw Riker, his phaser in his hand, Ro was standing next to him.

"Who are you?" Riker demanded.

"I am for him, I am for Worf, I am only for Worf."

"Commander." Worf called out, "Do not let her touch you. Phasers will not stop her"

Riker placed himself between Worf and the woman, she became agitated, almost desperate.

"I am for Worf. Please, I must touch him."

She lunged forward and placed her hand on Rikers chest, nothing happened.

Riker got over his initial surprise and pushed the woman away.

"You could have killed me, why didn't you? You killed D'Amato, you injured Worf, why did you not harm me?"

"It is not my wish to cause harm."

"Then why are you trying to kill us?"  
The woman became more and more desperate, almost to the point of tears as she tried to explain.

"Only Worf. I mean you no harm. Please, I must touch him. I am for Lieutenant Worf."

"Well I'm not going to let you." Riker barked.

The woman appeared startled by Riker's defiance. She stepped back and Worf watched with amazement as her body shimmered and folded in itself. She was gone, her disappearance as mysterious as her sudden appearance what now seemed like hours before.

For a moment the three of them just stared at the spot where she had been, Worf almost wondered if he had imagined the whole thing. Riker turned round, his face a picture of confusion that was mirrored in Ro's face.

"Worf, are you ok?"  
"I am fine, sir."

"I'd say you were lucky." Ro added, she was kneeling beside with a tricorder, "Where she touched your shoulder the cells have been disrupted, exploded from the inside. If she had grabbed hold of you, you would be dead."

Worf pulled himself to his feet, Ro tried to help him but he would not let her. He knew she meant well but his warrior spirit wouldn't allow it. He tried to make sense out of what had happened, the woman was evil, and yet she was quite beautiful. One thing he knew for certain was that they weren't out of danger yet.


	7. Chapter 7

Jean Luc stared out of the window of the ready room as Data gave his report, he was lost in thought when Ensign Walton called over the com system.

"Captain, we've carried a second full search of the ship, there is no sign of the intruder."

"Very well, Mr Walton, cancel red alert but maintain a heightened security level."

"Aye sir."

He slowly sat down turned his chair to face the window.

"I wonder how she managed to get off the ship." He thought aloud.

"I believe the obvious answer would be the same way she came aboard, but we haven't been able to ascertain how she did that."

Jean Luc normally liked mysteries, but this one had left two men dead and three of his crew were stranded, and for all he knew they were also dead. His head began to ache, and not for the first time, he closed his eyes and rubbed them. He suddenly realised that he was tired.

"Captain, are you alright?" He heard Data ask.

"I'm fine Mr Data, just a slight twinge, nothing to be concerned about."

He saw Data open his mouth to speak when the ship suddenly lurched forward, it felt as though they were accelerating.

"Picard to bridge, report."

"We've just jumped to warp 9.3, sir." Lieutenant Rhada answered from the helm, "speed is increasing sir."

Picard jumped out of his seat and quickly made his way to the bridge.

"Reduce to warp 7." He ordered. He watched as Lieutenant Rhada tried to regain control.

"It's no use, sir, helm is not responding."

"Bridge to engineering."

"_La Forge here, captain, I'm already on it. It looks like a power surge, we'll have to reduce speed while I try to locate the malfunction!"_

"We've already tried that, helm is not responding."

"Sir" Rhada called, "now at warp 9.5 and accelerating."

"Did you hear that, Geordie?" Jean Luc said into the com, but he got no answer.

"Engineering. Mr La Forge." He called again.

"_Yes sir,"_ Came the reply, eventually, _"and I know why. The emergency bypass on the matter antimatter integrator has been fused, the engines are running out of control and there's nothing I can do. We'll be at maximum overload in 15 minutes, after that the ship will explode."_

OoOoOoO

Geordie checked all the systems again, with the same result, the integrator was irreparably damaged, and there was no time to speculate as to how it could have been done. He turned to face Captain Picard.

"There's nothing I can do sir, the entire integrator system is useless. And there can be no doubt that it was sabotaged, probably by Watkins's killer."

"Geordie, to sabotage the integrator to such a degree is impossible." Data added. "Captain, in order to completely fuse this system it would require a phaser more powerful than the ships phaser banks."  
"That's academic, Mr Data," The captain replied, "the fact remains it is fused. Mr La Forge, if memory serves there is a crawl space that leads to the reaction chamber, would it be possible to shut off the fuel flow at that point?"

"It might be possible with a magnetic probe, but I doubt that anyone could survive in the crawl space that close. Even if they could any matter that comes into contact with the antimatter will trigger the explosion."

"Someone is going to have to try, Mr La Forge, and as I'm not prepared to order a suicide mission that someone is going to be me."

Geordie was taken aback, Captain Picard's courage was never up for question but this was something different.

"Captain, you'll be killed."

"We all will if it isn't repaired quickly."

He realised that the captain was right, but he also knew that he was better qualified for the job.

"Yes sir, but I can't let you do it. I know this system better than anyone, even the designers, I should be one to do it."

"I've made my decision, Mr La Forge."

"No sir," Geordie raised his voice, he was adamant, "look, it may be your ship, but these are my engines, and I'm pulling rank here. I will do it."

Picard smiled at him.

"Very well, do whatever you can. Mr Data, in the meantime I want you to run a comparison between the Enterprise's present condition and her condition prior to our contact with the planet, and I want all discrepancies noted no matter how irrelevant they may appear."

"Sir?" Data enquired.

"The ship feels wrong somehow, I can't explain it but it does."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one, sir," Geordie added, "I've had that feeling all day."

Picard nodded, nothing needed to be said as they both understood each other.

"Good luck, Geordie."

"To us all, sir."


End file.
